Chi Oten Bara: Story of Lumaria
by tenshi-no-oujou
Summary: The story of Marluxia's orginal, Lumaria, in modern life, before he became a nobody.


Chi Oten Bara:

The story of

Lumaria

"Lumaria, Lumaria!" Eben shouted.

"What?" Lumaria lazily responded.

Lumaria had fallen asleep again in the shop. It had been almost a month now since he's been having bizarre dreams. He would dream of an immense floating castle with a magnificent moon in the background. A man with silver hair would appear before him, and nothing else. He had been baffled by the meaning, but thought nothing of it, and continued without telling anybody.

"Ya know Lumaria, I don't know what to do with you. If you fall asleep again on the job, I'll have to fire you." Eben said.

"Whatever, I hate flowers anyway. Just the smell drives me crazy, not to mention the obnoxious colors tormenting my eyes every time I open my eyes." Lumaria said with distaste.

He didn't actually hate flowers, he actually liked them a lot; he was simply annoyed with how much Eben liked them. Eben was a simple man who enjoyed the simple things in life. Instead of finding dirty magazines hidden around Eben's room, he'd find flower catalogues and scientific journals written by herbologists specializing in flowers and trees. Lumaria was simply astounded at how much Eben knew about flowers. He could tell what flower came from what region (Japan has regions, not states) just by a minuscule of color distortion.

Lumaria had lived near Eben ever since they were kids. Their dads worked at the same shale plant, and lived in the same district. Their families knew each other for awhile, and eventually set up a play date for Lumaria and Eben. They became fast friends in no time. After they grew up together, Lumaria and Eben decided to live in the same apartment. They were good friends, and decided if they lived in separate apartments, they'd be wasting money since they'd be over at each other's house too often. They both had discovered a passion in which they could share. Eben loved flowers, and Lumaria loved being around Eben.

Lumaria had discovered his feelings shortly after the two entered Junior High. He had always liked Eben, but his feelings grew to something more. He didn't think Eben "was into" the same stuff as he was, so he never brought it up. He never mentioned it to Eben, but liked being around him anyway. He painfully withheld his feelings from Eben the 20 some odd years they knew each other.

When Lumaria discovered that Eben was opening a flower shop, he was happy to volunteer to help him in the shop. Eben happily agreed. They soon moved in together, and got to work. Eben was famous as being a "god of the petals" so called by his clients, and got many customers. Lumaria was happy for Eben; his dream came true, and he had money to fall back on. Lumaria didn't really like money all that much, it complicated things; but it was nice to have decent furniture and food at the apartment. Lumaria was happy as long as Eben was happy, and wanted nothing more.

After Lumaria was so violently awoken, he got back to the cash register. Eben went to the backroom to finish watering the flowers. Eben took care of the plants and arranged the flowers, while Lumaria took care of the shop. He was rather good at what he did, as Eben was a master at his craft. Lumaria always felt a shadow of talent growing exponentially around him, and he knew that some big company will eventually hire him to work at their landscaping firm; it was inevitable. Lumaria knew this, but he wanted to enjoy as much as he could at the time being.

His gaze ventured about the shop as he always did every once in a while. Long ago he challenged himself to find something new each time, and each time he noticed something new. A splash of color, a petal dropping, a flower taken away to be a decoration; and each time he would feel the same way he did around Eben, content.

That day was nothing special. A young man looking for the "perfect flower", an elderly couple finding a flower to commemorate their life together, a saddened widow looking for "their flower". He greeted each one with a smile, and called Eben out each time. All the customers had to do was explain what they liked, and Eben would find the perfect flower each time. 'He's amazing' Lumaria thought to himself.

"Hey Lulu," Eben called out.

"What?" Lumaria answered. He didn't like his nickname, but played along anyway.

"Can you come back here?"

"Sure…" Lumaria said as he looked to see if they had any customers. His gaze came up empty, and walked to the back.

Lumaria walked to the back to see Eben was opening his "forbidden flower case". Lumaria was forbidden to open it, as the flowers within require very specific temperatures or amounts of light to bloom. Lumaria just let it be as he was rudely scolded for killing a rare middle European flower when his curiosity got the best of him.

"I've been keeping these flowers here for the perfect occasion." Eben declared as he pulled a vase from the container.

Lumaria was in awe of the gorgeous flowers presented before him. The glass vase contained the most beautiful blue roses Lumaria had ever seen. Lumaria had heard of blue roses from Eben on the occasional word vomit about flowers he spat out constantly.

"How… how'd you get those?" Lumaria said.

"I've been working on these for awhile… I wanted to grow something amazing for you, and I finally managed it after about three years." Eben replied

"You've been working on these for, three years?"

"Yeah… I knew it would take something amazing to impress you wi..." Eben was cut off

Lumaria had rushed in to embrace Eben, the flowers remaining in Eben's iron grip.

"Thank you so much," Lumaria whispered

"This means a lot to me." Lumaria said as tears filled his eyes.

"You're welcome…" Eben said as he returned the embrace.

They held for what seemed to be an eternity.

They finally let go of each other and returned to work. The rest of the day was a blur to Lumaria. He was too happy to care about anything else. After the day was over, they closed up shop and walked outside. Eben locked the door as Lumaria watched. They walked in solemn joy with no words exchanged. Lumaria was overjoyed, and Eben was even happier. He honestly believed Lumaria didn't enjoy flowers much, and to see the reaction of Lumaria was enough to keep him happy for a long time. As the stoplight changed to red, and the two walked alone across the street, Lumaria trailed Eben by a few feet. He noticed a movement in the corner of his eye. A maniac driver was driving toward them at what seemed to be a blur. The next few seconds seemed like an eternity to Lumaria.

Lumaria instinctively leaped at Eben to get him out of the way fast enough to save him, completely forgetting about his own wellbeing. As he made contact with Eben, Lumaria seemed to be in slow motion. Eben had barely glanced behind him as Lumaria unknowingly shouted the single word "Eben!"

Eben was thrown violently to the ground barely clearing the car. In what seemed to be a fraction of a second, he saw his best friend hit by the car that he himself was saved from. Lumaria flew over top as the car made contact, falling a few feet behind where he originally stood. Lumaria fell on the pavement violently, as the car screeched to a stop. Eben dashed to where Lumaria finally stopped moving.

Eben stood above Lumaria kneeling in his best friend's blood.

"Lumaria! Lumaria! Stay with me!" Eben said tears freely rolling down his cheeks.

Lumaria coughed up blood in response.

"Eb… ben…" Lumaria choked while Eben firmly grasped his hand.

"Yes!? Its me, Eben!" Eben cried.

"Thank… you so much…for the… flowers…" Lumaria said with the last of his strength.

With that, Lumaria's eyes closed, and hand went limp.

"You're welcome… Lumaria"

_**End**_


End file.
